I know street art can feel increasingly like the marketing wing of an art career, so I wanted to make some art without the price tag attached. There’s no gallery show or book or film. It’s pointless. Which hopefully means something.
BANKSYI know street art can feel increasingly like the marketing wing of an art career, so I wanted to make some art without the price tag attached. There’s no gallery show or book or film. It’s pointless. Which hopefully means something.
BANKSYNot everyone will understand your journey. That’s okay. You’re here to live your life, not to make everyone understand.
BANKSYI tell myself I use art to promote dissent, but maybe I am just using dissent to promote my art. I plead not guilty to selling out. But I plead it from a bigger house than I used to live in.
BANKSYI’ve never really understood why people sleep. Wasting a third of your life and becoming vulnerable for almost 8 hours every night. Doesn’t seem very appealing to me.
BANKSYThe one thing you can rely on is if you get disturbed halfway through a painting and it looks a bit naff, then someone will preserve that piece, remove it and a few months later it’ll be paraded round Sotheby’s by people wearing white gloves.
BANKSYIt’s impossible to predict which paintings will last and which won’t. In New Orleans I painted on a dilapidated shop in a street littered with abandoned cars and rotting mattresses, then two hours later the piece was gone. It turned out I’d picked the side of a crack house and the proprietor didn’t like the attention.
BANKSYFight the fighters, not their wars.
BANKSYI used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don’t do that so much anymore.
BANKSYA recent survey or North American males found 42% were overweight, 34% were critically obese and 8% ate the survey.
BANKSYI originally set out to try and save the world, but now I’m not sure I like it enough.
BANKSYBecome good at cheating and you never need to become good at anything else.
BANKSYBus stops are far more interesting and useful places to have art than in museums.
BANKSYIt doesn’t take much to be a successful artist-all you need to do is dedicate your entire life to it.
BANKSYSometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world I can’t even finish my second apple pie.
BANKSYI wanted to highlight the destruction in Gaza by posting photos on my website – but on the internet, people only look at pictures of kittens.
BANKSYToday’s art has been cancelled due to police activity.
BANKSY